Animal health certificates for pet travel
Taking your pet on holiday overseas can be a wonderful experience for you both, but it does take some organising. At Southill Vets, we can provide the necessary health checks, animal health certificates and any export health documentation your pet requires to travel overseas.
Contact us to book a travel consultation
Pet travel requirements
At Southill Vets, members of our Veterinary Team hold Official Veterinarian (OV) status, which is a requirement to be able to issue animal health certificates (AHC) and other documentation for pet travel around the world.
Travelling to an EU country or Northern Ireland
You should begin the process of obtaining the necessary pet travel paperwork at least 4 weeks before you are due to leave. Post-BREXIT, you can no longer use a pet passport issued in Great Britain (England, Wales & Scotland) for travel to an EU country or Northern Ireland. You can, however, still use a pet passport issued in an EU country or Northern Ireland.
When travelling to an EU country or Northern Ireland, your pet needs:
- to be microchipped
- an Animal Health Certificate (or a pet passport issued in an EU country or Northern Ireland)
- tapeworm treatment for dogs if you’re travelling directly to Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway or Malta, and for entry back into Great Britain (it must be given no less than 24 hours and no more than 120 hours (5 days) before you enter GB).
These requirements also apply to assistance dogs. You may need to produce your pet’s documents on arrival.
You can find rules for repeat trips and travelling with more than five pets on the Government’s travel advice site: www.gov.uk/taking-your-pet-abroad
Travelling to a non-EU country / Rest of the World
We recommend that you research the requirements for exporting your pet to a destination outside of the EU well in advance of your travel dates. For some countries with strict requirements, you may need to start preparing for your pet’s trip eight months in advance.
In order to take your pet to a country outside of the EU, you will need to get an export health certificate (EHC), and complete an export application form (EXA) if you are in England, Scotland, or Wales. The export health certificate checks that your pet meets the health requirements of the country you are travelling to – you must nominate an officially recognised Vet who will be sent the EHC to complete during the required health check. The EHC and EXA forms for each country and pet will tell you how to apply.
Contact us to book a travel consultation
